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DRAGONMOUNT

A WHEEL OF TIME COMMUNITY

For Everything, There is a Time -- Ryen


Urais

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- - - - - Sovald looked around, waiting for Ryen. The boy would come -- he wouldn't be late. He was learning, at least. This weapon hadn't shattered -- not yet. Sovald picked up a sword, tossing it lightly. It had been some time. A very long time. But he could still remember standing in the ring, practice sword in hand, watching Andular demonstrate the forms. Of course, he had seen Andular do the forms after that.... quite painfully demonstrating them, actually. And even before that, Daimian. The sword flowing so easily, the man's feet as he demonstrated carefully and fluidly to Sovald exactly what to do. Yes, it had been some time. And there Ryen was now. Sovald dropped himself easily into the void. No need to get sloppy. The sound of feet behind him, and he turned, bringing the sword up easily in a horizontal slash, stopping right short of Ryen's throat. "Boy." Sovald nodded, then moved back. "Today, you will learn." Sovald dropped the sword on the ground. "How to move your feet." He kicked the sword aside. "Then, maybe then, you can dream of carrying one of those." A smile flickered over Sovald's lips. "Observe." He stood out from the boy, picked up the sword, and held his arm comfortably. "This, this is how you hold your sword. It is called Lion on the Hill. It will be the first form you learn -- we can't trust you to take the sword out of its sheathe yet. Now, supposing you were to attack..." Sovald let go with one hand, held out the sword pointing forward, and slowly, so Ryen could see, stepped forward with his leading foot, thrusting the point out. Then pulled back. "That, that is a thrust. You can use it to put your opponent off balance... or to advance. Like so" Pulling back, Sovald led forward with another thrust, bringing his trailing foot up behind him as he brought the sword back to himself. "Easy enough, yes?" Sovald chuckled. "That's what you think now, watching me. A retreat, now." Advance, retreat, crossover. Each one had to be burned into the boy's mind, burned in and then more, so he was so aware of them that he would no longer be aware. And, while it was not nearly that far yet, after the first ten or fifteen times tripping over himself, the boy was looking just that much better. Reluctantly, Sovald handed him the practice sword. "Let me see you thrust with it." When the boy did so, he nearly toppled over. Shaking his head, Sovald adjusted the way he held his arm. "Move forward into the thrust, don't throw your body into it. Again" More changing, postioning of the feet... this would be a long week. And he hadn't even gotten to teaching a bit of slashing yet...

- - - - - The week went by, and the boy began to fall over himself a little less each day. There was a little trouble over how to turn his wrist -- a sprain from trying to slash with the tip wrong... Still they went over everything time and time again, the right positioning of the hands on the hilt, the way to bring the sword down.. Everything mattered. Thrust, parry, retreat. Slash, advance, parry. Over and over. As the night drew on, Sovald looked around. "Good. We're done with this for now." The sun still shone a little, and Ryen's look was puzzled, but he set the sword down all the same. Sovald sat on a bench, and as Ryen toweled off, motioned him to sit across. "You are learning how to hold a sword, how to fight. But you... are not knowing the way for your mind to fight. The Guard learns a conditioning, a mindset. Well, there are two. I may have mentioned them before... There is the Spring, and there is the Flame and Void. The Spring... the Spring is relaxation, passion, everything all together. All the emotion you have, be it love or hate, you take it all and embrace it, let it flow through you, be your creativity, be your hope, be your driving force and the strength that guides your hand.

- - - - - "The Flame and Void is not the agility of the mind, it is the strength. With the Void, you let go of everything that you have and are, turn it loose into the blackness within you, letting it be burned out of exsistence.. You become, instead, one with the world and the sword, seeing everything, untouched by your emotions or disturbed by your senses -- you are the blade, and you see where to strike." Sovald smiled. It had been some time. And maybe this was still a bit over the boy's head. Sovald turned his eyes away from the sunset, pink and orange radiating, and looked at the boy. "What do you think?"

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